[OccupyCU] Fwd: Urgent Action Alert: Congolese Families Displaced From Their Homes

[Karen Medina]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Chris Schwartz <cschwartz at uaw.net>
Date: Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 2:10 PM
Subject: Urgent Action Alert: Congolese Families Displaced From Their Homes
To: Chris Schwartz <CSchwartz at uaw.net>


Dear Friends and Allies –

Please forgive me if you get more than one copy of this email, but we
are facing a very urgent situation and need your help so I didn't want
to miss anyone who attended the meeting a few Saturdays ago. As you
know, workers at Flex-N-Gate’s Guardian West plant in Urbana have been
working together to form a union for many months now. They are paid
wages that keep them hovering at the poverty line, and often work in
dangerous conditions.

Now, a group of workers at the plant who have stood up for change at
their workplace are facing another crisis. Last weekend, Congolese
families living at the Continental Plaza and Stoneleigh Court apartment
complexes simultaneously received letters from their landlord—Royse &
Brinkmeyer Apartments—stating the company will not renew their leases.
The letter went on to say that the landlord has had “less than
satisfactory” experiences with these tenants. To our knowledge, every
single Congolese resident in these buildings will lose their lease. No
one else in the complex appears to have received a similar letter.

Altogether, 11 households will be affected when their leases expire in
the coming months. Seven of these apartments are occupied by workers at
Flex-N-Gate, including several who have spoken out publicly about the
dangerous conditions in the plant, which uses toxic chromium to
manufacture truck bumpers.

We are asking members of the Champaign-Urbana community to take action
to support these families.
The residents who received these letters were not behind on their rent.
They hadn’t received warnings for noise, for not maintaining their
apartments properly, or for anything else. They work hard, and go to
school to improve their English and advance their education. Royse &
Brinkmeyer’s actions will make it harder for these members of our
community to find affordable housing. In our opinion, their actions
amount to discrimination against a group of people who are just trying
their best to build a brighter future for themselves and their families.


Residents are in the process of filing fair housing complaints with the
appropriate agencies, but they need your help, too. Please take a minute
to send an e-mail to Royse & Brinkmeyer demanding that they do the right
thing, and copy members of the Champaign Human Relations Commission.
It’s quick and easy: just go to:

http://afl.salsalabs.com/o/5892/c/1363/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3695


Please forward to others you think may want to get involved.


-- 
-- karen medina
"The really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain